Midnight Palace
Vendor
- Messages
- 640
- Location
- Hollywood, CA
Found online...
People often contact us about this picture, so we've decided to add it to our photo page. We believe this photo is a fake--one of many fake Earp-related photos. There are probably quite a few copies of this photograph around, since someone has been advertising it in western history magazines since the 1960s. We suspect someone found an old photo and just put in names of famous western figures who he thought the people in the photo resembled. Whether he really believed it was these people or whether it was a con to make money, there's no way to know.
The first big tipoff that something is wrong is the date. If the photo was taken in 1883, then that can't be Morgan in the photo because he was murdered in March of 1882 and it is very doubtful Doc left Colorado from 1882 until his death. He barely escaped being extradited back to Arizona shortly after he and Wyatt moved to Colorado following the vendetta. If Doc had been taken back to Arizona, he probably would have been murdered or hanged. The Colorado governor saved him and it's very likely he was afraid to leave the state. He was relatively safe as long as he stayed in Colorado.
If we assume the date on the photo is wrong and it was taken when Morgan was still alive, we don't recall any record of Wyatt going to Montana while he was living in Tombstone from 1879 to 1882. If he did go to Montana for some reason, it's doubtful Morgan would have been with him. We also seriously doubt all the people this photo claims to have in it were ever together in one place. Plus, it should be noted that there are at least four different lists of names that have been attached to the bottom of this picture over the years. One replaces Morgan with Virgil Earp.
Also, while we are not that familiar with most of the people listed on the photo, we are very familiar with what Wyatt, Morgan, Doc or Bat looked like and we don't think any of the men in this photograph looks like them. But while all this may cast doubt on the picture, it doesn't disprove it.
Jason Leaf has spent a considerable amount of time researching this picture and is convinced it is authentic. He believes it was taken in 1886. While we don't agree with most of his conclusions, we do particularly like his comparison where he puts enlargements from the dubious photo alongside authentic photos. To us this clearly shows that none of the people in that photo are who they are claimed to be--with the possible exception of Roosevelt. We feel that's the strongest evidence the names on this picture are fake.
People often contact us about this picture, so we've decided to add it to our photo page. We believe this photo is a fake--one of many fake Earp-related photos. There are probably quite a few copies of this photograph around, since someone has been advertising it in western history magazines since the 1960s. We suspect someone found an old photo and just put in names of famous western figures who he thought the people in the photo resembled. Whether he really believed it was these people or whether it was a con to make money, there's no way to know.
The first big tipoff that something is wrong is the date. If the photo was taken in 1883, then that can't be Morgan in the photo because he was murdered in March of 1882 and it is very doubtful Doc left Colorado from 1882 until his death. He barely escaped being extradited back to Arizona shortly after he and Wyatt moved to Colorado following the vendetta. If Doc had been taken back to Arizona, he probably would have been murdered or hanged. The Colorado governor saved him and it's very likely he was afraid to leave the state. He was relatively safe as long as he stayed in Colorado.
If we assume the date on the photo is wrong and it was taken when Morgan was still alive, we don't recall any record of Wyatt going to Montana while he was living in Tombstone from 1879 to 1882. If he did go to Montana for some reason, it's doubtful Morgan would have been with him. We also seriously doubt all the people this photo claims to have in it were ever together in one place. Plus, it should be noted that there are at least four different lists of names that have been attached to the bottom of this picture over the years. One replaces Morgan with Virgil Earp.
Also, while we are not that familiar with most of the people listed on the photo, we are very familiar with what Wyatt, Morgan, Doc or Bat looked like and we don't think any of the men in this photograph looks like them. But while all this may cast doubt on the picture, it doesn't disprove it.
Jason Leaf has spent a considerable amount of time researching this picture and is convinced it is authentic. He believes it was taken in 1886. While we don't agree with most of his conclusions, we do particularly like his comparison where he puts enlargements from the dubious photo alongside authentic photos. To us this clearly shows that none of the people in that photo are who they are claimed to be--with the possible exception of Roosevelt. We feel that's the strongest evidence the names on this picture are fake.
